Led by Coco Gauff and a cast of charismatic upstarts, tennis hit a sweet spot at this year’s U.S. Open with a diverse blend of old and right now, signaling the game is freshly and firmly energized as it enters a new era.
No Serena Williams. No Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.
No problem.
True enough, Novak Djokovic, who is going for the 24th major title of his career on Sunday, in the men’s singles final against Daniil Medvedev, is still performing his magic act. But conventional thinking had contended tennis would be in trouble when the legendary champions who have propped up the professional game for roughly the past two decades began leaving the game en masse.
At this tournament, the commanding arrival of Gauff, who won the women’s singles title Saturday evening, along with memorable performances by Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, proved that thinking wrong.
At the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, a quartet of legends no longer stifled the game, overshadowing the sometimes stalled forward motion of the young players coming behind. You could feel it on the grounds, which filled with so many spectators that it often appeared there was no space to move without bruising a shoulder. This year’s event set attendance records nearly every day.
“It’s incredibly…
